Dead or Alive?
by Monosunatsu
Summary: In a similar world to the clans, seven curses came, all the same. Seven cats were put into a painful, dreaming sleep. Six of them will have the same, fateful destinies that will claim them as they play the "game". Only one will awake from the deadly slumber their clan has wrought onto them... But who? Who will awake?


**Dead or Alive?  
Prologue**

A fraying branch shook in the wind. Then two. Then three. Then four. Then five. Then six…

Seven swaying branches bent deeply as their furry inhabitants dropped off in bundles of clumsy paws, yawning and scratching.

"Cloverkit! Didn't I say that you're too young to go down yet?" The red tabby mother stopped, blinking her blue eyes. Cloverkit stared nervously at her paws, the burn of her siblings' eyes on her.

"I just wanted to go," she pleaded. Her green eyes shone only sadness as she crept quietly to the base of the tree, feeling the long climb up the tunnel inside the bark. From all her time, she had never ventured down below her den. Maybe a few drops, but she never actually went anywhere…

"Go down one more time and I'll tell Rabbitfur to cut your ear off this time!" Redfeather sneered at the kit, who shuffled back to the smallest den at the corner of the space.

"I'm sorry, mother." She tried, but Redfeather took no excuses. White teeth appeared from red jaws, and then her mother was gone- dropping down below into the floor.

Cloverkit sighed, but no tears would come to eyes anymore. They were too dry, too empty to cry. Maybe all the days before had dried them of their moisture. She didn't know.

The tiny kit was already seven moons, her siblings eight. Redfeather always treated them better, giving them licks on their shoulders when they brought in prey, or cheered them on in fights (she could hear the yowls.) But most of all, she allowed them to go down. Down into the ground, where Cloverkit wanted to be most. She wanted to see the sky that everyone talked about, so bright and pristine that you could see white fluffy things pass by. Clouds, Wingkit called them. Like big, flying sheep soaring over blue and past the dark leaves of the trees she knew too well.

Someone entered the den. "Wingkit, I'm over here." She called to her older sister. She knew all her siblings by scent, and Wingkit the best because she spent the most time with her. Wingkit was the funniest, the smallest of the six and the quickest. She was always smiling, her long brown and white patched tail whipping back and forth.

Cloverkit lifted her leaf green eyes to see her sister's dark frown. "Wingkit? Are you okay?" She questioned.

Wingkit's blue gaze flickered to her, almost like she'd heard a ghost. "Yes… I mean no. Hey, Mother wants to talk with you. She's telling you to come down."

Cloverkit's heart soared. This was the big moment! She was finally going down! She leapt to her feet in seconds.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Cloverkit cheered. Her cream colored ears swiveled in excitement. Wingkit smiled a little as she led her younger sister to the platform.

This time, only two figures leapt down onto the earth, marking the soft stone with yet more paw prints. They continued for a few seconds in silent until her sister broke the silence.

"So. How's it like here?" Surprisingly, Cloverkit didn't know what to say. They hadn't left the denning area yet, and it was still covered with an eerie darkness. The trees were tall and looming (as well as hollow), and there was no one around except for them…

"Wingshadow! Is that you?" Cloverkit blinked as her sister walked faster, meeting up with a tall, dark brown tom before she had a chance to answer. Wingshadow? Did they have fake warrior names for each other? She would ask that later.

"Greystorm, it's me. I brought her. So please… please just…-" her sister's voice broke off in a mournful silence that stunned the kit's heart. Something was wrong. But what? What was wrong? What?

Wingkit bit her lip, and then she burst out crying. She glanced at Cloverkit and started sobbing harder. Greystorm moved forward quickly but Wingkit shoved him away and ran off.

"Wingshadow, wait!" he shouted, but Wingkit ignored him and quickly disappeared inside the hollow of the tree. Greystorm's fur bristled angrily when Cloverkit brushed against his shaggy fur.

"You! Come with me." He snarled. His angry golden gaze made the she cat shrink, obediently following the warrior out of the hollow. Cloverkit trembled, shivering and looking at cats joining Greystorm. This wasn't supposed to be how it started. It couldn't be. Where was her mother, Redfeather?

Finally, Greystorm stopped and Cloverkit caught a glimpse of the red fur she remembered so clearly. "Mother!" She yowled and lurched forward, but the strange cats around her pushed her back, almost violently. When the red cat didn't turn, she began calling for her brothers and sisters.

"Lightningkit! Waterkit! Briarkit! Cinderkit!-

"I will have complete silence!" A loud, commanding yowl settled the procession, and Cloverkit's voice quailed. She knew the stormy grey tabby on sight. It was Stormheart, the deputy. Wingkit once said he was the actual leader of the clan, but she obviously knew it was Flashstar. Now, she was thinking differently.

"Where is Wingshadow?" He asked brusquely, sharp eyes on Greystorm. The warrior became tense as he replied. "She has been overwhelmed by herself."

Again with Wingshadow, Cloverkit thought distantly. Her green eyes were focused on the deputy as he shifted his powerful eyes to her. "Bring her to Rabbitfur, and let it commence."

Wha-What? Her mother! She had to speak to her! What about Wingkit and her brothers, her sisters? Who was this deputy, she thought, screaming, to do this to her?!

Merciless paws grabbed at her legs, and the inwardly-blinded kit found herself being carried to the healer's den. Did they think she was sick? No, her mother would have commanded Rabbitfur to come up himself.

Inside the den, it was hot and clammy. Cloverkit felt a fever dawning on her, the familiar buzzing in her head and the random words that she spewed out every time. Once, she'd said something about a "waterfall," but she didn't even know if that was real, never mind what it was. The healer had dismissed it as fever murmurings.

Her legs burned as well as she was thrown roughly down. A spasm of pain hit her shoulder, and Cloverkit began coughing. "Look at her," she heard through dimming ears. "So pitiful…" _So painful._ "Will she actually survive the Sleepers' Game?"

_H..ah... The… Sleepers'… Game…_ Her thoughts scrambled up, and she only felt distantly a scream followed by five echoes. Her scream, she realized. But who were the others…?

An overwhelming darkness overcame her, after she said something, perhaps her last words. "Wingkit… don't you dare come down. It's a liar's world here… There... I answered... your question."

And then nothing.

* * *

**Does she die? Does she live? What's going on? The Sleepers' Game? What? **

**All will be answered in the next chapters... So be sure to review! **


End file.
